Student Challenges App

Student Challenges is an app for students who want to enter the university. It helps to prepare for SAT and ACT while competing with other applicants. The exam preparation is
organized in the form of online competition. The participant who gives more correct answers wins the game. The questions comply with those of real SAT test and ACT test, which guarantees an objective estimation of knowledge.

Our team has designed the interface, created the mobile app for iOS platform, implemented server architecture, API, and business logic of the service.

Application logo

Considering that app’s logo will be generally used as an icon in AppStore and on the desktop, we designed a logo to fit the form of the iOS application icon.

We wanted to reflect in the logotype such concepts as thought рprocess, game, filling the tests and test score. As a result, a pencil was chosen as a symbol which consolidates all these concepts.

Then we developed an associative array containing words related to the successful completion of the tests. There belong such words as preparation, practice, and proficiency. So, we linked the image of a pencil to the shape of letter P which these words start from.

In the final version, we simplified the sign by getting rid of tiny details because they take too much space on a small app icon.

App design

When the client sent us raw prototypes, description of the service functionality and monetization scheme, we started to design the interface. The main screen was designed as a control panel, where the user can find short information about complexity level, count of attempts left in online matches and timer till the next match. Moreover, here students can chose a match online, a practice or a question of the day.

After choosing the category of online-test, the app is searching for an opponent for the competition. A must-criteria is the same level of knowledge to make the competition interesting. During the match opponents are answering the questions simultaneously, the one who answers first gets bonus points. The winner is determined by the number of points received for answering questions.

In the user profile, one can find statistics of each online test as well as the scale showing the number of points needed to jump to the next level.

Matches history

All completed tests are recorded in history, moreover, each test has explanations for answers. It is a very convenient function for those who want to understand the mistake and give the correct answer next time.

After completing the section of the test, the users get extra points. They can pass a verifying test, for which they get points, too. This is the way we motivate users not only to pass tests but also to work on their mistakes.

We also built in the opportunity to purchase the Premium version of the app. With it, you can remove ads and disable all limitations for the number of matches available.

Development technologies

The project is developed on the base of Symfony framework. This is a well-organized, powerful and up-to-date framework, and our team has a solid experience with it. Moreover, this framework is most suitable for the development of REST API. The latter was developed on HATEAOS architecture. For this, we used BazingaHateoasBundle.

The subject area of this project allowed us to chose object-oriented database MongoDB. Also, we used our own websocket server written in Python with AsyncIO in order to provide real-time data transmission between the client and the server. For pending tasks, we used RabbitMQ.

Results

When launching a new app to the market, it is essential to make it grow big in the precise segment. Due to convenient navigation and useful functions, our app is popular among the target audience, 18-24-year-old US students.

From the moment of the launch, the Student Challenges app was downloaded around 1 500 times. Another key indicator of an app’s success is the number of times it was launched by users. It is pleasant to mention that Student Challenges app was launched around 10 000 times.

These numbers reflect that users do enjoy the learning process with Student Challenges and keep on using it right along.